ROSSENDALE has become a cleaner place and council officials believe it is all thanks to wheelie bins.

The authority has delivered bins to nearly 17,000 properties, three out of its five rounds, and is working on Rawtenstall and parts of Haslingden over the next week.

Highways direct labour organisation manager David Rigby said: "We have noticed that in areas using wheelie bins, streets and yards are cleaner because animals are no longer ripping open bags and spilling rubbish on the streets.

"A helpline number at Rawtenstall town hall - 01706 21777 - has attracted two thousand callers, but half were asking for smaller bins, five hundred wanted assistance with collection and a similar number were complaints or people wanting advice."

There are still a further 9,000 bins to be distributed, but deliveries will be suspended for the summer holidays.

By the end of September the remaining areas of Helmshore, Stubbins, Edenfield and parts of Haslingden will covered. Mr Rigby addressed residents' concerns that a child could get trapped inside a bin, saying there was no airtight seal and the noise a child made to get help would be amplified by the container.

He also said security fears because the bins were left outside while residents were at work had proved unfounded with no increase in crime.

The number of old bins the council had been asked to collect had also been reduced.

Mr Rigby hoped this meant that people had converted their plastic bin for use as a home composter.

Rossendale runs a fortnightly door-to-door newspaper recycling collection and it is hoped that it can be linked with the wheelie bin collection date.

Mr Rigby said: "We offer assistance to about five hundred people who are disabled, alone or over eighty by helping them move their bins from the storage area to collection and returning them.

"People are initially given a two hundred and forty litre bin but can opt for a smaller size which still holds the equivalent of three black sacks.

"In the vast number of areas most people have been very reasonable about the introduction of bins and many who were kept on black sacks have asked for a bin."

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